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Connecticut braces for impact

By Bill Cummings| on
July 10, 2018

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, from left, Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, stand during a meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Senate Republicans are pledging a swift confirmation process that would put Kavanaugh on the bench before the new term opens Oct. 1, and there is little Democrats can do to stop them. less

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, from left, Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, ... more

Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Bloomberg

Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Bloomberg

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, from left, Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, stand during a meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Senate Republicans are pledging a swift confirmation process that would put Kavanaugh on the bench before the new term opens Oct. 1, and there is little Democrats can do to stop them. less

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, from left, Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, ... more

Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Bloomberg

Connecticut braces for impact

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Connecticut is bracing for a local and national political fight over a U.S. Supreme Court nominee opponents believe will unravel gun control laws, abortion rights and health care protections.

But not everyone agreed with Malloy’s view of U.S. District Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative Yale Law School graduate and politically connected jurist nominated to join the nation’s highest court.

“I think it is unfortunate that Connecticut Democrats are using scare tactics when they talk about the nominee,” said state Senate minority leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, referring to Malloy and others.

“The fact is many laws already exist in our state that protect against concerns that Democrats have raised,” Fasano said.

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Although the fight will primarily be waged in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., the coming political and public relations war will likely seep into the fall elections for General Assembly seats and governor.

The Supreme Court — with Kavanaugh forming a five-vote conservative majority — could chip away at Connecticut’s assault weapons ban and other gun controls enacted after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of 20 children and six adults.

The right to an abortion at clinics in cities such as Bridgeport, Danbury and New Haven, could be lost. The Obamacare mandate that insurance companies cover preexisting conditions could also be in jeopardy.

J.R. Romano, the state Republican Party chairman, said Democrats are seizing on the nomination to avoid talking about local issues.

“It didn’t matter who Trump picked, Democrats would have a problem,” Romano said. “It’s fake rage and not leadership. Connecticut deserves better. [Democrats] are in a constant state of resist.”

Battle lines

Democratic leaders in Washington hope to block the Kavanaugh nomination by swaying a few moderate Republican senators to their side while holding all 49 Democratic votes.

The odds, however, favor Republicans, who hold a slim two vote margin and one less if ailing U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, can’t vote.

Adding to the intrigue are moderate Republicans, such as U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who supports abortion rights and helped block repeal of Obamacare.

But Democrats have loyalty problems as well — three of their senators are up for re-election this fall in swing states carried by Trump, and its unclear which way they will vote.

Connecticut’s U.S. senators are in lock step against the nominee.

“I am so disheartened that President Trump would choose such a radical, anti-consumer, anti-woman jurist to be his nominee for the Supreme Court,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizen’s Defense League, which opposes gun control laws, said Trump made a “good choice” for the Supreme Court.

“Although no one can be 100 percent certain on how a justice will decide certain issues, Brett Kavanaugh has a track record of upholding the Second Amendment,” Wilson said.

“We know that there will be full on attacks on the nominee,” Wilson added.

Lawrence Keane, senior vice president for the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown, also favored the pick.

“We are confident that Judge Kavanaugh will serve our nation with distinction and he will make decisions that protect the Second Amendment and other constitutionally guaranteed rights of law-abiding Americans,” Keane said.

In a 2011 case, Kavanaugh wrote a minority opinion in the D.C. Circuit Court’s upholding a ban on most semi-automatic rifles, arguing the Second Amendment included the right to own semi-automatic rifles and that handguns — “the vast majority of which today are semi-automatic” — are constitutionally protected.

“Connecticut has a ban on assault weapons and this law is definitely at risk if Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed for the Supreme Court,” Murray said.

“He is a gun rights extremist who is definitely to the right of where the majority of Americans are, because weapons of war do not belong in the hands of civilians,” Murray said.

Abortion and Obamacare

Two issues expected to be key in Kavanaugh’s confirmation are the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that effectively legalized abortion in the United States.

“You have a very conservative court for the first time in years, and things are going to change,” said Angela Mattie, an attorney and health care professor at Quinnipiac University.

“His nomination has a lot riding on it, in terms of health care,” Mattie said.

Mattie said Kavanaugh was involved in the lawsuit Seven-Sky, which challenged Obamacare’s individual mandate requiring those without insurance to pay a penalty. The mandate was eventually lifted under the recently passed federal tax law and that repeal becomes effective next year.

Amanda Skinner, president of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, said she’s worried.

“I am concerned for generations of women to come,” Skinner said. “This (nomination) is evidence of this administration taking us back at least 50 years to when women didn’t have authority over their own bodies.”

Skinner said she’s only mildly comforted by the fact that Roe Vs. Wade is codified into Connecticut law and that it would likely remain legal regardless of the Supreme Courts rulings.